The Problems of Philosophy
About this ebook
A central pillar of the work is Russell's distinction between knowledge by acquaintance (direct awareness of sense-data and internal thoughts) and knowledge by description (indirect knowledge of physical objects and other minds). He also defends the existence of 'universals'-abstract entities like 'whiteness' or 'justice' that exist independently of the human mind. The book concludes with a stirring defence of the value of philosophy, arguing that its true merit lies not in providing definitive answers, but in its ability to enlarge the mind and free it from the 'tyranny of custom.'
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About the author
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a famous and towering British novelist-a philosopher, logician, mathematician and Nobel laureate. As a founder of analytic philosophy, he revolutionised the field by applying formal logic to linguistic and philosophical problems. His monumental work, 'Principia Mathematica', co-authored with Alfred North Whitehead, attempted to ground all of mathematics in logic.
Beyond academia, Russell was a fierce social critic and a prominent pacifist, famously being imprisoned during World War I for his anti-war activism. In 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his varied and significant writings in which he championed humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.
